Regulation of Discharges from Wellboats

On Tuesday morning the Scottish Parliament's ECCLR, environmental, committee is being asked to approve a new government order transferring regulation of discharges from wellboats from Marine Scotland to SEPA. The stated reason is to simplify matters by reducing consents to just one.

In practice just now, wellboats are carrying on their activities basically unregulated, moving along the coast applying treatments ranging from dosing salmon with chemicals to subjecting them to hot water baths as a "kill or cure" way of ridding them of sea lice.

Mark Ruskell will be speaking at the committee and I've annexed some notes that I've prepared, as they should be of general interest.

Well Boat Discharge briefing Notes for Mark Ruskell

Introduction

I am a former solicitor and live beside Loch na Cille at the head of Loch Melfort, part of a loch system comprising in addition Loch Shuna and the Sounds of Shuna and Seil. I have long argued that the system deserves to be treated as a single sea loch, as it shows all the features, glacial cills, restricted tidal flushing etc. Despite this Marine Scotland and the planning system allow only Loch Melfort the protection afforded to a sea loch and as a result there are only two “farms” in our stretch, consented historically and small in current terms, Eilean Coltair CAR/L/1000197 and Kames Bay CAR/L/1000237. These belong to Kames Fish Farming Limited, whose base and the owner’s house are also here.

The wider sea loch contains another five, much larger “farms”, Ardmaddy CAR/L/1010472 (currently not in use), Port na Cro CAR/L/1000810, South West Shuna CAR/L/1025496, Bagh Dail nan Ceann North and South CAR/L/1004226 and Shuna Castle Bay CAR/L/1000801. Three more are considered in planning terms to impact on the area in terms of environmental management, Ardifuir CAR/L/1021927, Port nan Seannag (Lunga) CAR/L/1000811 and Bagh Lachlainn CAR/L/1025495. These are all operated by either Kames or MOWI. It’s difficult to tell, because the two companies operate in a loose partnership, the former promoting the “local family owned business” idea to obtain consents and then turning the site over to the latter.

Much of my life over the last ten years has been devoted to trying to limit the proven damage this massive overload continues to cause, without success so far.

Wellboat Regulation

Wellboats became an issue quite recently, when they started to appear in numbers. Mr Ruskell will of course know that the present regime consists of licences granted by Marine Scotland. The transfer to SEPA has been in the wind for some time and was promised within the “first 6 months of 2020” in response to my request (F0191380). The same response included:

“Will licences be issued on a site basis, or to individual wellboats/owners/charterers? Will these be CAR licences or licences under some new system? Please advise where a list of licences can be accessed online.

We confirm that when SEPA becomes the regulatory authority we envisage incorporating the discharge of wellboats into each sites existing CAR (Controlled Activities (Scotland) Regulations 2011) licence.

These will be available on our Public Register. SEPA is moving towards an online Public Register.”

Current Position

It can be seen from the Marine Scotland webpage

Marine Scotland Applicationsthat there are currently six or seven applications from companies trying to beat the deadline. Don Staniford’s update from 22 June confirms that consents will continue to be valid. Appendix A to the parliamentary briefing shows that there are currently 53. (The 2013 total is fascinating, 186!)

I have not seen the draft order, but Terry A’Hearn’s comment suggests that no changes of substance are proposed and the matter is being presented as a simplification with no consequences.

Suggested Concerns

I am very worried that the present system, to be carried over, allows for licences on a site by site basis. On the face of things this has the merit of simplicity. One would assume that the wellboat would arrive on site, carry out the necessary procedure, discharge the effluent immediately and then depart. In theory this would allow officials from SEPA to turn up and assess any remaining residues on the seabed for environmental effects. In practice that may not be what happens.

On the West coast I and other residents are now seeing wellboats that are massive in size, travelling considerable distances from site to site and carrying out various procedures. Individuals belonging to the numerous community bodies who make up the Coastal Communities Network observe movements on the Marine Traffic website and share information about this. My immediate neighbours here frequently see a substantial wellboat at Kames Bay, just a couple of miles from the head of the loch, discharging residues that must have come from treatments carried out at the some of the other large sites referenced in my introduction.

Any regulatory system must be based on the assumption that there will be operators who try to cheat, but the present system makes it just too easy. Of course, local residents have absolutely no way of knowing what chemicals or other waste material may be within those discharges, but the fact that they take place far from the sites they are licensed to raises concerns. A standard hydrolicer treatment should, in principle, yield only dirty water, the corpses of fish that haven’t survived and sea lice, alive and dead. But treatments are moving on and, for example, details of the toxins involving the new Benchmark procedure are being withheld. The response to my FOI continued:

“Feedback had been sought from the third party who confirmed that disclosure of information would cause substantial prejudice to their commercial interests. We recognise that Regulation 10(2)(b) requires SEPA to apply a presumption favour of disclosure. In the specific circumstances of this request, SEPA considers that the release of the correspondence and documentation would cause a substantial prejudice to the commercial undertaking and economic interest. SEPA therefore contends that the public interest in the release of the information is outweighed by the public interest in maintaining the exception under the terms of Regulation 10(5)(e) of the EIRs”

Possible solutions might be to require waste to be discharged at the particular site, but then a discharge far out in deep water might be better, or to attempt licensing of vessels rather than sites, but that would involve a totally new system.

In short, there are more issues here than are likely to be explored, let alone resolved, on 22 September.